Page 94 of Forever Dark
The rest died in his throat.
“I’m sorry,” Selena said quietly.“The killer’s targeting women with that sort of reputation.”
Connor had come up behind her without noise.“Is it possible he had relations with all three?”
Selena thought of Brenda Colter, Lauren Gimble, Tara Brennan.Different lives.Different ages.Different corners of the county.One man bedding all of them felt too neat.Too human, in the wrong way.
“Possible, but…” she said after a moment.“I don’t think so.There’s no indication from the first two victims of sexual assault.And the DNA swabs came back negative.This feels more distant than that.He watches.Judges.Builds a case in his own head.Then he steps in and does what he thinks must be done.”
Connor stepped over to them.“A watcher.”
“Yes.”Her gaze drifted back toward the silo.“And now with this harvest angle, he may believe he’s sacrificing promiscuous women for some divine purpose.”
Arnold rubbed at one eye with the back of his wrist.“Sick bastard.”
“Was Tara religious?”Selena asked.
That got a quicker answer.
“Yeah.Especially the last few years.Started going to things.Church events, prayer groups.More than she used to.”
Selena held his gaze.“Do you follow her on social media?”
Arnold gave a confused little nod, then reached into his pocket for his phone.“Yeah.”
“Let me see, if you don’t mind?”
He unlocked it and handed it over.
Tara’s profile came up with a few taps.Selena scrolled past work photos, family pictures, a plate of diner pancakes under bad lighting, a tired selfie after a shift, then stopped.
One week ago.
A photograph under a white tent at dusk.Stage lights.Folded chairs.A caption beneath it about needing to hear something hopeful.
The revival.
Connor leaned in at her shoulder.“This isn’t just coincidence now.”
Selena enlarged the image.In the corner, half out of frame, she could even make out Croft’s bus.
“All three victims we know of were at that revival,” Connor said.
Selena handed the phone back to Arnold.The line of the case had just narrowed and sharpened at the same time.
“Let’s bring in Elias Croft for questioning,” she said.“He was hiding something.I’m sure of it.”
Connor exhaled and glanced toward the road.“We’d better hurry before they pack up and leave.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
By the time Selena was well on the road, the adrenaline from the silo had burned down into something colder.
Connor had retrieved his car.His SUV stayed ahead of her on the two-lane, brake lights flaring now and then as he took the curves a little too fast.Selena’s rental car was running okay.The steering still pulled slightly left, but it ran, and that was enough.
Fields slid by under a washed-out afternoon sky.Wind bent the tops of late grass along the ditches.More than once, Selena caught herself tightening her grip on the wheel for no reason beyond the pressure in her chest.Three women dead.All three tied to the revival.Three chances for Croft to tell the truth, if truth had ever been on offer from him in the first place.
Connor’s voice crackled over the radio.
